Arthur’s Tea Towel Story

I don’t know Arthur, I’ve never met him but I have heard Margaret talk about him.  Margaret is a member of the Creative Writing Group I belong to.  She has written some very funny pieces and was one of the early members to write a Guest Tea Towel.  For a long time she has said that Arthur would write a poem as a Guest Tea Towel.  When you get an offer like that, you sense it will never happen.  Margaret proved me wrong, I am pleased to say.

I was invited to Afternoon Tea with Ishbel, as a ‘thank you’ for designing her Puppet Festival Tea Towel; it was a kind of ‘reunion’ for the Creative Writing Puppeteers.  Margaret was there AND she brought Arthur’s poem, rather poems, AND a beautiful Emma Bridgewater tea towel, for me.  Clearly the tea towel fits with the theme of the poem but at the bottom of the page I attach an Owl Tea Towel that Ishbel gave to Liz (and, no, she hasn’t given it to me) and a British Owls Tea Towel, very popular for many years which I was given, along with 18 others, by Susan’s mother.

I am making the assumption that Arthur is a bird-watcher but he is also a very funny and clever poet!

                                                    Teet Owl (Dryers family)

In Britain:    Common

Identification:     White with dark stains on breast, even after washing

Voice:     Whistles, like a pig

Habitat:    Kitchen drawers, clothes baskets, washing lines, rhubarb trees

Food:     Mops up jam, treacle, milk and other liquids

Breeding:      Year round in dark cupboards, rhubarb trees

With thanks to Collins ‘Birds of Britain’

Using his knowledge of the Teet Owl, Arthur has written a masterpiece of a poem:

Teet Owl

Is a pretty bird

It whistles like a pig

It builds it’s nest in a rhubarb tree

And leaps from twig to twig.

It plays it’s song on a rolling pin

And sings a happy rhumba

It likes to dine at 49

On grapeshot and cucumber.

It has a mate called a Poppin Jay

Who really knows his onions.

He goes to school ‘cos he’s no fool

He’s an expert on Bird Bunions.

Thank you Arthur for making me laugh!